When Danny Met Mindy
by Unlampliking
Summary: Mindy is locked out of her apartment again, forced to stay with Danny. Post XPST and things are a little weird. They decide to watch When Harry Met Sally, and Mindy starts to realize something she'd never thought of before.


"I can't believe this is happening again," said Danny as he looked at her, arms crossed. Mindy didn't even forget her key this time-she just lost it. She stood outside his apartment, looking down awkwardly. She knew it wouldn't be like it was last time now that she was dating Cliff. This was just going to be awkward. But Cliff was out of town, and Mindy wasn't very good friends with anyone else now. She'd drifted apart from pretty much everyone but Danny in Haiti. The only reason they didn't was because of the letters... Morgan was probably an easier option, but there was no way that was happening. Not even now.

She looked up at him, glaring slightly. "Danny, stop judging me and just let me in. I'll sleep on the couch this time." When he didn't move, she continued, exasperated and a little embarrassed. "We don't even have to talk!"

Things had been weird since that dance. She really tried to not think about how many times he'd practiced it in this apartment. He ruined that song for her a little-but almost in a good way. It would be in a great way if...never mind. It's not like they had even actually _said_ or _done_ anything. It was implied, and neither of them could really pretend nothing had happened.

Danny looked down and nodded slowly. "Alright," he paused. "But you're not sleeping on the couch."

Mindy smiled at him sheepishly. Sheepish was not her thing. She was loud and opinionated Mindy, not this shy and awkward one! She stopped smiling and made herself appear confident, like she should be around her coworker and platonic friend as she strolled past him. For a moment, she stood awkwardly among his now familiar apartment, wondering what exactly she was supposed to do now.

She watched Danny turn toward her. He looked at her like it was work to do so. Well, that's it. She couldn't take this not-really-talking. She needed the talking. Especially the stupid jokes he always made, even if she sometimes didn't understand them. He somehow never made her feel stupid for not understanding something.

She sighed. "Okay. I changed my mind. I can't not talk."

"Clearly," he said. A badly hidden half smile didn't let him get away with indifference.

Mindy walked to the couch she'd laid on last time and sat down. Danny followed suit, sitting a few feet too far away. There was another silence before she spoke without thinking.

"Haven't you ever heard of YOLO, Danny? We can't waste all this time ignoring each-"

"I wasn't ignoring you," Danny said indignantly.

"Yes, you were." Danny opened his mouth to say something but closed it and looked away. Mindy spoke again, hesitantly now. "We don't have to talk about it. I really did like the dancing though."

She looked sideways, expecting him to look sad, but he was grinning.

"It was stupid," he said through his smile.

She punched his arm lightly. "It was amazing!"

He drew into himself a little more with that. His smile faded and he seemed to remember himself. He cleared his throat.

"It's like...9:30. I think it's about time to sleep."

"Ugh, you're such an old man." Mindy refused to give up this easily.

He glanced sideways at her. "Okay, well you can stay up until the late hours of the night, but I'm gonna go." He started to stand up.

"Danny," she whined. Then realized she had no reason to make him stay awake with her. And he obviously didn't want to.

"Yeah?"

"Nothing." She gave her best fake smile.

He seemed to sense that it wasn't nothing, tentatively sitting back down. Just as he was doing so, Mindy saw it. An excuse.

"Danny! You have this movie?" She walked toward the table, seeing a DVD rental of _When Harry Met Sally_. It briefly registered that of course Danny would still use DVD rentals, and of course he would rent a movie she remembered him making fun of. She smiled as she grabbed it then swung around to show him.

He looked a little guilty. "That was Christina's. I've been meaning to bring that back to the store."

She smirked dubiously. "This was rented like 3 days ago."

"You can tell that on those things? Give it to me." He grabbed it from Mindy, who had sat back next to him by now. Was he kind of...blushing? Mindy's smirk grew wider.

"We have to watch this. I don't care that you don't like it. It's such a good movie."

Danny said, "I don't know whether I don't like it or not. I only saw that one part. I was just...curious."

"Perfect! Then let's watch it right now.

Danny audibly groaned and Mindy could tell this wasn't going to happen without a fight.

She put on her most innocent expression. "Please?"

"I only have a TV in my room. Remember? I'm not doing that."

She moved closer to him and he really looked at her. "Daniel Castellano, will you please watch this movie with me if I promise to not even touch you?"  
Now he looked disgusted, but there was a hint of a smile, too.

"Do not call me Daniel," he said. "And...no! Whatever. Fine."

Mindy clapped excitedly as he reluctantly handed her the DVD, then walked to Danny's room, turning the dusty DVD player on and putting the movie in.  
She practically ran to the bed and sat near the middle, close to where Danny was. There was only one foot between them, which Danny seemed hyperaware of.

Not even Mindy spoke until Harry began talking about how men and women can't be friends. Danny laughed quietly. Mindy shifted uncomfortably. Maybe she hadn't really thought this through.

"That is obviously not true," she said skeptically.

"Yeah, it kind of is," he replied incredulously, looking at her.

"We're friends!"

Danny held her gaze momentarily before looking back at the screen.

Neither of them said anything.

Harry and Sally parted ways.

A while later, Harry talked about how men and women can be friends if they're in relationships with other people, and Mindy thought about the irony of it.

They parted ways again.

Mindy admitted to herself that she was pretty impressed with her ability to remain quiet during this movie. Normally she would've been talking the whole time, pointing out all the cute details to Danny. And Danny would be pointing out all the unrealistic, obnoxious things. She wished it were normal.

Harry and Sally were really good friends now. Mindy had been inching closer to Danny for the past half hour without even realizing it. Harry had weird sex with all these girls then talked to Sally for hours. _Stupid letters._ They went places together, made each other laugh, and- why was everything in this movie reminding her of Danny? He was going to ruin this for her too.

_Cliff. Cliff is so hot. Remember those perfect eyes? He's so much more down-to-earth and nice and...hot...and other stuff. Cliff. But how is Danny still not saying anything! Wait, no-we're thinking about Cliff. Ugh, just watch the movie._

Harry and Sally had sex, and now it's really weird trying to be friends. Huh. Is dancing like sex? Danny's dancing might-_Cliff_.

Finally it was time for the bitter fighting. Harry and Sally weren't talking. Something Mindy could relate to. But she kind of felt like Sally was being unreasonable. Harry had tried apologizing for like three weeks. It's not like he really even did anything wrong. Mindy looked quickly at Danny and glared subtly. He turned to her just as she turned away. She felt like a kid in middle school. She looked back and he was still looking at her. They held the gaze for a moment before Danny broke it, looking back at the movie. Mindy did the same.

The awkward eye contact between Harry and Sally at the wedding didn't help. This was too similar, and it was kind of getting weird. She did have to laugh at the similar way Sally brought the Christmas tree to her house, though. Danny seemed to be thinking the same thing. She could see him smile from they corner of her eye.

The famous new years scene. Mindy was dreading it now.

Harry realized he's in love with Sally. He ran kind of unnecessarily fast, in Mindy's opinion, but for romance it was worth it. Not that she would do it. At least that was one thing Danny and her agreed on.

Harry began to tell Sally all the little details he loved about her. Mindy found herself hoping someone would love all of her little details like that someday. Would Cliff? Wait...

_"Twizzlers? You like those."_

The screen lit up their faces, the shifting colors of it obvious as it was reflected onto them.

_"You called 911 when a butterfly got into your apartment."_ Okay, maybe that one wasn't so sweet, but he remembered it!

Mindy slowly looked at Danny, who was now less than half a foot away.

_"When you first started working here, you used to play this nonstop."_

Sally was starting to cry. She told Harry that when he says things like that, it makes it impossible for her to hate him. It's not Sally's fault that she didn't want to forgive him for so long. That's just Sally-_okay, wait. Am I Harry in this scenario? No, I can't be Harry. Sally did the Christmas tree thing._

Danny looked somewhere below the screen as they kissed. Harry and Sally, obviously. Mindy was still looking at him, and he glanced at her. He was nervous.

_"It was the first thing about you that ever really annoyed me."_

Mindy muted the final conversation where Harry and Mindy talked about how they hated each other so many times then were best friends then weren't, okay, we get the point. She didn't have the patience for the stupid pineapple cake right now.

"Hey!" Danny looked at her wide-eyed. "Are you kidding me? It's almost over." He reached for the remote, but she dodged his hand. When he looked at her, he stopped reaching.

She took a deep breath. "I miss talking to you." She prepared herself for the speech she was about to make. She'd thought a guy would give her this speech, not the other way around. Danny watched her with a bewildered expression.

"I don't even know how we started being friends. You used to be so mean! But somehow I got used to...having you, and-you poured wine into my bra! But now we can't even talk?" She was kind of stammering, not being able to find the right words. Maybe eloquence was never her thing. She composed herself, but before she could speak again, Danny did instead.

"I'm not trying to ignore you, Min," he said gently. He hadn't called her that since the party. Now he looked at her carefully. "You didn't do anything wrong. I just didn't...want to be that guy."

She narrowed her eyes. "What guy?"

"Peter," he searched her eyes for comprehension but she didn't have it. "When Peter was talking about taking advantage of that girl. I didn't want to do that."

"But-I asked you!" she blurted out.

"I know, but you wouldn't have if Cliff were there. I can't...keep being your consolation prize, Mindy."

She sat looking at him, not knowing if that was a joke or what to say if it wasn't. He wasn't her consolation prize. At least she hadn't realized it was like that.

Danny continued. "And I probably wouldn't have been able to do it even if you were totally yourself then. You know me. You know I can't be in a relationship without messing it up." He said the last part quickly.

"Okay, I didn't ask you to be in a relationship," Mindy narrowed her eyes. "I asked you to get some fresh air! But even that's enough for you to-" she realized she didn't know what she was saying anymore. Danny looked hurt.

She waved the fight away with a hand. "You know what? It doesn't even matter. It's in the past."

Danny was surprised. "Really?"

"Yeah," she smiled, but wasn't totally sure about it.

Danny watched her thoughtfully.

"What?" said Mindy.

He turned back toward the television, which was still frozen on the party just after the voiceover started. She could tell he was thinking carefully about what to say next.

Still looking at the screen, he said, "I didn't know how to talk to you. And I still don't. Nothing is different-and it's not your fault." He looked at her again as he said this. "I just don't know how to be your friend anymore."

He was really good at coming up with ways to keep her quiet lately. What was she supposed to say to that? She felt like she was going to cry. Like she was being broken up with. But she wasn't, because she still had Cliff. She expected that to make her happier, but it didn't.

"Why not?" She stared at the blanket covering their legs.

It was silent for a moment before he said quietly, "because I want to be more."

This caused her to promptly turn to him and really look. He was also examining the blanket, looking a little sad. In contrast to thinking of Cliff, this actually gave her butterflies, which she tried to kill but they seemed resilient. She examined his profile. There were a lot of questions presently in her mind.

"But I'm dating Cliff. And you don't like relationships," she said suspiciously.

"Yeah, well you've dated a lot of guys, Mindy. _A lot-_"

"Okay."

"And I don't _not like_ relationships. I just," he paused. "Don't like overly complicated things."

She smirked and tilted her head. "I thought you liked being single and cool, Danny."

"I like being single and cool!" He tried to stop himself from grinning. "But it would be okay to be not single and cool. I'd be cool either way, okay?"

"You are not cool. First of all, cool people don't brag about how cool they are."

"There aren't rules for being cool."

She raised her eyebrows. "You're obviously doing it wrong. Can we stop saying 'cool'?"

Danny's smile slowly went away and they glanced at each other. Mindy looked purposefully at the wall and thought about kissing Cliff outside that night. She thought about all the dates they'd been on and how happy she was to finally be dating someone who she _really_ liked. She sighed as she realized the situation she was in. If she broke up with Cliff-hypothetically-she would lose her chance with him. He was the first guy in a long time she'd had an actual crush on for so long before dating. But if she stayed with him she would continue to lose Danny. She thought about Cliff saying he'd always known she was a little crazy. Danny had been so much worse, though! Lose 15 pounds?! Cliff would never say something like that.

But would Cliff ever make such amazing gingerbread houses? He would certainly never dance to a song he hates for her.

"Hey," Danny said slowly. Mindy could see he was watching her, smiling sadly but encouragingly. "It seems like you're actually thinking. Are you okay?"

"Yes," she said shortly.

He cleared his throat and said, "I think I'm gonna go to sleep."

"Why?"

"Well..." he now said as he began to get up, "we're not really talking anyway."

"Let's talk, Danny!" She moved to sit facing him.

He did the same, hesitantly.

"About what?" he asked.

"About what you said."

He looked panicked. "No, that's okay. It's fine. Just forget I said anything."

"I'm not going to just forget it."

"Why not," he said flatly.

"Because you told me that you do indeed harbor some very personal, unlamplike feelings for me, and we have to talk about it now."

He looked at her, uncharacteristically shy.

She continued, "Why?"

He sighed. "It's not really like that. It's not that simple."

Mindy's eyes narrowed slightly, trying to understand.

"I didn't even realize it happened," he said uncomfortably.

She tilted her head curiously again. "Since when?"

"A while."

Mindy pretended to gasp. "Danny! You've had personal feelings for me for _a while?_"

"Come on. Like you didn't know."

She thought about the hug that happened last time she stayed here. Actually, there were a lot of little things. Even before she left with Casey...

"Do you think I'm crazy?" she asked suddenly.

"What? No," he said, then after thinking for moment, "well, yeah. But in a good way."

She nodded. "Okay. I can accept that."

They sat avoiding each other's glances.

"You shouldn't have lost your key."

"Kind of glad I did." Mindy shrugged.

"Yeah?"

There was a loud crashing sound from somewhere outside then. Without thinking, Mindy lunged forward and was in an awkward hug-like position with a relatively unwilling Danny.

"Okay," he was moving his arms, attempting to make her go back. "Okay, stop. Seriously? Again?"

She looked up at him and let go slowly. He thought she was going to kiss him, she could tell.

"No no no no. You-okay, just-go back over there on _your side_."

"I was not going to do anything," she backed away slightly annoyed. "Calm down."

"You're dating the attractive lawyer from the building and I have to see him walk in to go with you all the time while we don't even talk. I'm not calm."  
They both comprehended what he said at the same time.

He turned around and stepped off the bed quickly, grabbing a pillow as he went. She followed closely behind him as he searched for a blanket. She folded her arms.

"Do you think I'm Harry or Sally?"

"Why would you be Harry? You're not a guy." He didn't pause looking through the drawer.

"That's what I thought," she nodded, momentarily pleased with her earlier deduction.

He found a blanket and spun around. "But you are about as self confident and manwhore-ish."

She opened her mouth, stunned that he would say such a thing, before she saw his smile.

"I knew you couldn't stay mad at me," her face lit up a little.

"I'm not mad at you," he said.

She pursed her lips as he walked past her to the couch, where he began laying the blanket down.

Just then, they both heard whispers from outside the room that were becoming increasingly louder and more frustrated.

"What the hell?" said Danny, walking to the door and opening it quickly.

Peter and Morgan poured into the room. Not thinking they'd get caught, they had obviously been pressed to the door, listening. Morgan and Peter looked at each other.

"So..." Peter started. "We were just-Mindy, we actually found your key."

"No need to thank us," added Morgan, smiling in a self-congratulatory manner.

"Yeah, just...doin' our job."

Peter hurriedly searched his pocket, muttering "nope, that's not it" and "there it is! Okay. That is a very old piece of gum." and "god, don't you love pockets in guy jeans? They have so much room."

"Peter!" Mindy finally exclaimed. "Just give me my key and leave. Why are you even here?"

"We wanted-" Morgan began.

"Shut up," interrupted Peter.

"I was just gonna say we wanted to give her the key," replied Morgan, whisper-yelling.

"Okay, what's going on?" asked Danny.

Morgan looked at Peter. "I'm gonna tell them."

Peter mouthed "no," clearly afraid.

Morgan smiled widely and said, "we took your key."

"Oh my god, Morgan! Stop taking my stuff!"

Now he spoke like he was willing her to understand. "No, you don't get it. It's a good thing."

"Sexting people and taking my key are not good things." Mindy hit him but it obviously made no difference. She looked at Peter, who's expression promptly changed from frightened to friendly.

Danny grabbed the recently found key from Peter's hand.

"You should probably go," he said to them.

"Wait," said Morgan. "The _reason_ we took your key is because we knew you'd come here."

"_What_?" Mindy exclaimed.

"Hold on-" started Danny.

"Calm down," said Peter, holding his hands up. "Let the man continue."

"We know you two haven't been talking. And it was making everyone depressed! So we fixed it."

"Putting two people who aren't talking into the same place is not a _fix_," replied Danny. "And anyway, it's no one's business whether we're talking."

"Why are you so angry all the time?" asked Peter contemptuously. "We're _obviously_ just trying to help."

Mindy thought quickly. "Why didn't you just knock?"

Peter fake-laughed like it was obvious and Morgan started looking around for a distraction.

"Were you spying on us?" asked Danny.

"It's not exactly spying."

"Yeah, not spying per ce."

"Everyone just shut up!" Mindy's words all fell together so it sounded more like 'everyonejustshutup.' She sighed heavily and looked at the three men standing in Danny's apartment. This was ridiculous. And very annoying. She would know.

She said, calmly as possible, "Morgan and Peter, why were you outside of Danny's door?"

"We wanted to know if you were making up," said Morgan.

She nodded. "Why did you take my key and force me to stay at the person-I'm-not-talking-to's apartment?"

Peter cleared his throat and answered, sounding subdued. "Cliff is great, but he's not Danny." Seeing Mindy and Danny's confused expressions, Morgan took over again.

"You guys were like best friends! It's really weird seeing you not even talk," he continued in a hushed voice, leaning forward. "Seriously, the ghost is around all the time now."

"Plus, he's so obviously in love with you," Peter said quickly. Upon seeing Danny's growing angry expression and Morgan's now confused one, he added,

"What? I _cannot_ be the only one who knows."

Danny found the floor fascinating. He studied its detail, not really listening to the conversation between Mindy and the two uninvited guests. He registered that she didn't understand why they tried setting her up with Cliff. Peter appeared to offer an explanation involving his own not caring that much and just thinking the sexting was fun. Maybe normally Danny would have denied what Morgan said, but there was no point now. He finally looked up to see that the conversation had ended with them leaving, but for some reason she was still here, despite the key. She stood and seemed to want to make sure the door closed, then kept still a few seconds longer than necessary before turning to Danny. She gave some sort of faked half smile and Danny responded with a withdrawn, tired expression.

Mindy walked toward him, too close. He stepped back almost imperceptibly, but apparently not enough so that she didn't notice. However, rather than look upset, she confidently walked too close again, causing Danny to bump into the couch and almost fall. That would've been cliché. She steadied him, taking his arm. Danny was starting to get nervous. She's with Cliff, not him. What is she doing?

"Mindy. What are you doing?" he asked softer than he'd meant to. This whole night had been weird. The typically outgoing woman he was used to had acted almost reserved. Why was she here? She had her key. This could not happen now that she was with Cliff.

He said this. "You're with Cliff."

"Cliff is great. He's hot, and smart, and a lawyer..."

"Yeah."

"But there's a lot of hot, smart lawyers." She paused, wondering how she could really be saying this. She was really giving up that hot, smart lawyer for this chance?

You know what? She was.

She put a hand gently on his chest. Danny looked down at it, then back at her. He looked worried.

"I can't. We can't do this." He moved away from her.

"Why?" Now Mindy looked worried.

"I don't know-the hot, smart lawyer?"

She lowered her gaze to the floor then to his eyes again.

He continued, "I just don't want to be the guy you kiss when you're dating someone else. I want to be the guy you're with."

Mindy thought about him. About how he'd been the one that was there for her through everything. He'd said she should lose 15 pounds and they'd hated each other for so long. But what about Harry and Sally? They hated each other for years and forgave each other anyway. If she was Harry, she was going to have to be the one to apologize. Apologize for what, though? Dating Cliff?

Danny started busying himself flattening the blanket onto the couch and she realized that, yes, for dating Cliff. Because how could she have not seen it? How did she not know, when he had always helped her, always made her better and made her nicer when she wasn't always nice. He was the one to not let her be alone after Josh cheated, the one who made sure marrying Casey was the right thing. He even liked her letters, where she couldn't be so extroverted and could only tell him things. She'd wanted to tell him. How easy would it have been to not write back? But she never wanted to, even with her fiancé right there. If he really had felt that way for a while, how long had he done things for her that he hated just to make sure she was happy?

There were so many hot, smart lawyers. But there was only one Danny.

She took her cell phone from the purse she'd brought and looked up Cliff in her contacts. This was scary. She never broke up with people, they always broke up with her. Besides with Casey. _How depressing is that?_

She took a deep breath, turned away from Danny, and walked out the door. She saw Danny look up, disappointed, as she closed it behind her. Finally she called him.

The phone rang a few times and she paced back and forth in the hallway.

Inside, Danny sat on the couch and thought about how stupid everything he'd said tonight was. Then he heard her muffled voice. She hadn't left? He couldn't make out the words, and didn't want to be like Morgan and Peter, but could tell she was telling something to someone gently, carefully. Again unlike her, but okay. He wondered what was going on when she walked back in.

How had this all happened in a few hours? Mindy came here wishing she had somewhere else to go, but now she just wanted to be here.

She smiled genuinely for the first time that night.

"Danny?"

"Yes?"

"I love that you've watched Up in the Air five times and always brag about it. I love that you think _When Harry Met Sally_ is stupid...I actually don't love is very annoying that you-"

"I don't hate it. What are you doing?"

"Shut up! Stop ruining my speech!" she exclaimed. "I love that I was always so excited to get those letters from you, and that you kept them, and you make such great gingerbread houses and make people know I'm not that much of a loser and-"

"I don't think that's exactly how he said it," Danny smiled. He was smiling at her the way he did before. "Mindy, who'd you talk to out there?"

"Cliff."

"Cliff." He sounded deflated. "Uh, okay, then I'm confused."

"I broke up with him."

Danny stood very still. "What?"

"Isn't that the only way we can do this?"

"Mindy...you didn't have to do that. We could still be friends if you were dating Cliff."

"First of all, obviously not. And second, that's great, but I don't want that."

He frowned. "Okay."

"I want more than that."

Danny looked straight at her. More? This didn't make any sense. What was happening?

"What do you mean?"

She smirked. "Why would I date a hot, smart lawyer when I could date you?"

She walked toward him and he didn't move back this time. Now, when she placed her hand in the same place as earlier, he kept his eyes on hers and leaned down to kiss her. Mindy knew right away this was different than kissing Cliff was. Different than kissing really anyone.

A while after they broke apart, Danny asked, "Morgan and Peter are going to think we owe them something."

Mindy's face contorted into a jokingly disgusted expression.

"I hope not. Harry and Sally, though..."

He looked at her and smiled thoughtfully. "Do you think they stayed together?"

"You know, Danny, I really do."


End file.
